Tech companies should cooperate with Govt.: BlackBerry CEO

April 19, 2016, 1:39 PM IST

New Delhi: BlackBerry, one of the major smartphone vendors in the world, has appealed to the tech companies to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies and the government as far as ‘reasonable’ data requests are concerned.

Blackberry CEO John Chen responded to reports claiming the company cooperated with Canadian Police to intercept and decrypt more than one million secure messages sent using BlackBerry devices, the verge reports.

“Regarding BlackBerry’s assistance, I can reaffirm that we stood by our lawful access principles,” Chen wrote in a blog post.

BlackBerry has said in the past cooperating with law enforcement is within its legal and ethical boundaries.

“We have long been clear in our stance that tech companies as good corporate citizens should comply with reasonable lawful access requests. I have stated before that we are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good,” Chen wrote.

“In the end, the case resulted in a major criminal organisation being dismantled. For BlackBerry, there is a balance between doing what’s right, such as helping to apprehend criminals, and preventing government abuse of invading citizen’s privacy,” he concluded.

The company’s statement comes at a time when Apple had gone head-to-head with the FBI this year over its refusal to help unlock a device belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook. (ANI)